In most areas of Western United States conservation of water is extremely important. The scarcity of water in the Western United States has created mandatory water conservation in many states. The hardest hit states are Arizona, California, Texas, Nevada, Colorado, Utah, and New Mexico. The situation is so bad in many communities that water rationing is being considered as means for controlling water usage. In some areas it is illegal to water the lawn or wash cars.
As the result of water shortages there have been many inventions in the fields of toilet and showers to cut down use of water while individuals are taking a shower or in flushing a toilet. In fact in some areas of the country only low volume toilets can be sold for instillation due to the problems they have with water consumption.
In National Wildlife What Happen to Cheap Water? (June/July, 89,) it states that it is estimated that laundry takes up 12% of the water usage's of the home. The (Jun. 9, 1992) USA today states that the average washing machine uses 50 gallons of water per washing. Thus, the washing machine is a prime target for saving water.
Further, the great disadvantages of the state of the art of washing machines as relates to the conservation of water are the market saturation and durability of the appliance. The Residential Energy Consumption survey of 1987 by the US Energy Information of Administration reports the 75% of United States household, that is Sixty Seven Million (67,000,000), have clothes washing machines. Appliance Magazine reports that the average clothes washing machine has a life of thirteen years. Industrial's sales total about 6.2 million units in 1988. Therefore, even if all consumers purchase a new water saving machine in one year, over 90% of all homes would use the inefficiency model already in the home. This will provide years of future service.
Therefore, one of the objective of this invention is to provide an "add on" clothes washing machine rinse water recycling apparatus for use in conjunction with existing clothes washing machines as a means of water conservation to save up to 50% of the water used during normal machine operation. A further objective of this invention is to provide a clothes washing machine rinse water recycling apparatus wherein the last rinse water of said washing machine is stored in a reservoir for used in the next first wash cycle of said machine.
In order to sell this water recycling washing machine or an "add on" apparatus to recycle the water of the wash machine, it is necessary to have an inexpensive and easily used device. Therefore, one of the objectives is to provide an add on clothes washing machine rinse water recycling apparatus wherein said washing machine components, specifically the water pump, is used to move said rinse water to the desired and fixed location whereby eliminating the need to duplicate its water pump within said recycling apparatus, thus, significantly reducing the manufacturing costs of the recycling apparatus. Further, it is an objective of this "add on" clothes washing machine recycling apparatus to use as many of the washing machine's components so as to significantly reduce manufacturing cost. Further, then it is an objective of this invention to use the cycle operation timing device to control the cycle operation of said recycling apparatus thus significantly reducing manufacturing cost of said recycling apparatus. Further, it is an objective of this invention to place the recycling apparatus in a fixed location and close approximately to said clothes washing machine as a means for utilizing existing components within said clothes washing machine. Also said recycling apparatus is built to relatively the same height and depths as the washing machine to providing efficient use of space in the laundry area. It is a further objective of this invention to build a device for recycling the water of washing machine that can be added on to existing washing machine to provide a substantial consumer market for the applicance manufacturers due to the durability and market saturation factors as they related to the existing washing machines. A further objective is to provide an add on washing machine rinse water recycling apparatus wherein consumer demand for said recycling apparatus enables said washing machines manufacturers to utilize productions facilities that are idle due to poor sales resulting from washing machines saturation thereby providing finical stability for the washing machine manufacturers.
It is further objective of this invention to save approximately 50% of the water usage of the common washing machine. By recycling the last rinse water for the use in the first wash cycle, it is possible to save up to 50% of the family water usage for laundry which is five percent (5%) of house hold water usage's. It is likely that in a twenty year period the average family will save enough water with this method too supply the family's household needs for an entire year.
Many other objective and advantages of the invention will become apparent from a consideration of the ensuing drawings and corresponding description.